Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I think I have spotted the hidden flaw in Aaro's argument

Here is the real lesson of 1956. The common thread between Hungary and Suez was that of the use and the withholding of American power. In the wake of Suez, the United States forced a reluctant Israel to withdraw from Gaza and Sharm el-Sheikh. In complying, Israel — for the first time — tied its future to the American giant. In Eastern Europe, America told the citizens of the satellite states that it wouldn’t risk another war for their liberation. They remained, for another 30 years, under Soviet rule.

This presumably accounts for the fact that today the Middle East and Israel are such flourishing and functional democracies, while Poland, Hungary, and former Czechoslovakia are such hell-holes? Is Aaro seriously trying to make the case here that over the last fifty years, American policy with respect to the Middle East has been more of a success than American policy with respect to Central and Eastern Europe?